Published 2021-06-30
How to Cite
Abstract
It is famously narrated that Pakistan came into being as a state for the Muslim minority of India. Nevertheless, Pakistan was also the homeland of many other religious natives such as Christian, Sikhs, Hindus, Parsis, Buddhists. Even many Jews lived in Pakistan who were the natives of this land for centuries before the partition of 1947. All of these religions are completely different from each other and also have their rituals, traditions, language, caste system, creed, ethnicity, marriage, and divorce laws. All of Pakistan’s constitutions give minorities equal rights, but when in the 1960s, Pakistan developed its first family laws for Muslims and launched “Nikah Nama”, and made other rules and regulations for the majority of its population but forgot about its minorities. Pakistan’s minorities suffer under Anglo Hindu Laws and The Christian Marriage Act of 1872 until recently. Pakistan introduced The Sindh Hindus Marriage Act 2016, the Hindu Marriage Act of 2017 Passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan, The Punjab Anand Karaj Marriage Act of 2018 for Sikh nationals, and the Christian Marriage and Divorce Act 2019 (still waiting for legislation). This article provides a brief introduction of above mention laws in the context of developments under the rights of religious minorities of the state. For this purpose, qualitative research is being conducted.